Xiongjing – Royal officials confirmed in a brief press release that the Emperor had visited the Pingtu Cathedral and burial site this morning on Good Friday. However, officials refused to give further details of the visit, other than stating that the Emperor “desires” to inspect the recent renovations of the church and the memorial grounds.

The Bai Emperor is known to keep his religious beliefs private to maintain “religious harmony” in the Empire, though it’s known he was baptised in his youth before his ascension as Emperor.

The visit was significant as the Pingtu Cathedral is one of the Empire’s oldest and largest churches. Throughout Bai’s history, the Church was the main epicentre of the Empire’s Christic movement. The nearby memorial site was formerly a school set up by the Church. During the Fascist Era, many converts to the movement were sent to the area for forced labour and extermination as retribution against the Pingtu Uprising.
This morning, a video of the Emperor being among the Good Friday congregation was circulated online. The churchgoer, who uploaded the video on social media, told the police that he only thought the man in the video “looked like” the Emperor, and was unaware he was the actual Emperor himself.

In the video, it showed the Emperor greeting the guest speaker for the church’s Good Friday service, and speaking to other pastors. The video is believed to be taken at the end of the service. Another picture by an unknown photographer showed the Emperor walking in the cemetery, where the victims of the Pingtu Massacre were buried. He was depicted placing a wreath at the memorial monument.

According to other churchgoers interviewed, they said they were unaware of the Emperor’s visit. Church ushers on duty stated that were only told that they were being supplemented by “other officials” to protect a special guest, and assumed it was the guest pastor speaking at their Good Friday service today.
“Nothing seemed out of the ordinary today, with the exception of a very important car being parked,” said the usher on duty. “We greatly welcome the Emperor and hoped he had a blessed time in our church.”
Still, it seemed that the visit was planned ahead of time. Other pastors and church officials had refused to comment on the grounds of “national security”. The video had since been taken down on orders of Bai authorities, though its images continued to be circulated online.